Week 3 Day 1: Suspense — JAWS

[Mary Albanese]

Scene Mastery, Week 3 Day 1 – SUSPENSE JAWS
Watch first time for:
Basic Scene Components, which are:
Scene Arc – Captain Quinn is up high, telling Sheriff Brody what to do. While Hooper plays cards. Brody dumps chum in – doesn’t see the shark right behind him. Yikes! He turns – sees. Shark disappears. It’s playing with him! Shut off engine. Quinn corrects know-it-all Hooper. Shark circles. Quinn lies on radio – he wants the shark catch to himself. These guys don’t get along. Nobody respects each other. Want different things. Kill shark, photograph shark, get glory of the catch. Hooper wants Brody to put himself in danger to get a shot. Hooper’s boots slip on the wet deck. Quinn spears shark, tells Hooper to attach barrel. Hooper has his own agenda. But gets the barrel tied. Brody says they need a bigger boat. Need help. Quinn refuses. Plans to attach another barrel. But where is the shark? Quinn waits on the tippy tip of boat precariously. Now it is dark and they won’t be able to see the shark at all.
Situation – three men hunt shark, each man with a different agenda so they don’t work well together. They are bound to screw up.
Conflict – Quinn wants it dead to protect the town. Hooper wants to study it for academic glory. Quinn wants to catch it for bragging rights glory. Only one has moral goals. This scene is not about man against shark, it is man against man’s greed. Super clever way to expand the conflict into personal insight within the audience. Since man against beast is too simplistic. We need to feel the struggle within ourselves, as expressed through external struggle.
Moving story along – Now that it’s dark, the shark wounded, and clever we are desperate to see what happens.
Ent. Value – The three men are expertly crafted – the hero, the lazy academic asshole, the greedy sleazy captain. We know who we want to win. Now we must watch to see what happens.
Setups/payoffs. All the awkward angles. The slippery boots. Standing on the forward tippy plank. Great set-ups. The guy who lies, the guy who’s lazy and puts others in danger – we are properly set-up for who we want to survive.

2nd time:
What makes it great? Setting up a scene with three men in conflict against a primal threat. Dropping hints of dangerous situation – the slippery deck. The tippy plant. Starting it showing how small this boat is from above.
What sets up he suspense and makes us worry? All the awkward angles, the sheriff giving warnings that get more and more insistent. The other two ignore them, and both reveal flaws that will get them killed. Denying help. Not following orders. Shaky hands. These two are reckless for their own egos – they will have to go. But will their foolishness het our hero sheriff killed, too?
How is suspense drawn out? In the continual examples of the three men not being able to work together to stop the shark. The two greedy men overconfident. Not realizing they are slipping. Not realizing they are standing on the tippy plank. So greedy they don’t see the danger even in the daylight. But we know it is coming. And now it is dark!
What increases suspense? Showing us the shark before the sheriff sees it. Watching the two men ignore the sheriff’s plea for a bigger boat. We KNOW that boat is going down. How will it happen? In some ways, we are partly cheering for the shark to get rid of those jerks. It must come. But how? And when? This is what keeps us at the edge of our seats.
End payoff? Now it is dark. Now the two men’s foolishness to see the danger is magnified.